ENG 102 Writing Projects

Writing Project #1- The Project Proposal Rough Draft

I am proposing a central research question to investigate the potential environmental issues and the impacts of the COVID19 pandemic in our local area of the San Francisco Bay. The photo above is of a local park that has had previous issues with toxic waste being dumped and affecting the water source. This is one of the areas I am committed to protecting with my research. I will be looking at the current known issues surrounding environmental health in the Bay Area and seeing what aspects of the pandemic may exacerbate or interact with those issues. What are the potential impacts of the COVID19 pandemic on potentially pre-existing environmental issues in the San Francisco Bay area?

One of the largest areas of intersection I have noticed in my everyday life is the rise of single use items. Is this affecting our local environment? Has our local environment improved with the possibilities of reduced pollution from the shelter orders that have been issued in areas worldwide? These are what made me originally interested in exploring this question.

This is the perfect time to work on this particular project, because it has real time effects and consequences. There is no true end in sight for this pandemic without a cure or a vaccine. This could be our new reality for years to come. In the meantime, our response to this pandemic could be creating other consequences for existing environmental issues. Scientists have stated there is a quickly diminishing count down on the window of opportunity to counteract our current environmental and ecological issues. I am nervous that while our focus is on the very serious ramifications of the current health crisis that we are ignoring the new realities. Our focus is too short term.

We need to focus on how our constantly evolving new normal is affecting the world around us. Some of the measures that have been enacted were correct and necessary at the time, and with the information we had available. Many of those measures though are not sustainable forever. Increased trash production is going to be one of the main items I plan to research. Our landfills were already struggling to handle our pre-pandemic trash production. Many are already filled, and now closed. Another side effect of landfills is the gas build ups that are caused as products start to break down. California already has one of the largest gas build ups from landfills in the country. Adding to that burden for the unforeseeable future does not seem sustainable.

This project would be shared in whole or in part with the environmentally minded among my social circle. Most of those readers would not necessarily be local, but it could prompt them to think about the ramifications in their own local communities. It would also be of interest in my political activist groups. They are invested in issues that directly affect our local area and are always interested in reaching out to our local politicians with concerns and calls for action. Finally, I would write or call my local political representatives myself to share my research and ask what could be done about it.

Something great I saw floating around social media recently was a suggestion from someone in local government. They were encouraging people to check their local government’s websites for the contact information for local representatives or council members. Stating that they had seen as few as 10 individual emails demanding action on the same item derail an entire city council meeting. That would be my goal. I would share my research with as many interested people as I could find in my local community and encourage them to email our city and county officials until something is done about any issues that I find.

The stakeholders for this project would be the locals. The people who live in these areas, especially the areas along the coast or in the areas at high risk for forest fires and mud slides, would see the immediate and day-to-day effects of any changes. Visitors to those areas would also be affected either positively or negatively depending on the effects. We are quickly approaching fire season. I have read that our local forest fire fighters have been devising new strategies to try to minimize the possible effects this year in the face of the pandemic. Mud slide season, which tends to coincide with and or follow fire season, and earthquakes are a little harder to tangibly prepare for. Hopefully if fire season is kept to minimal levels, mud slide season will be the same. Earthquakes on the other hand can not be prevented in any way and could have unprecedented consequences in our time of crisis and social distancing. Any of the agencies faced with planning and combating any of these events would be potential stakeholders of this project.

I am excited for this research project. I think I will be able to learn a lot from it, and that it will help me to better connect with my current community.

Writing Project #1- The Project Proposal Final Draft

I am proposing a central research question to investigate the potential environmental issues and impacts of the COVID19 pandemic in the San Francisco Bay area. The photo above is of a local park which has previously had issues with toxic waste exposure and affecting the water source. This is one of the areas I am committed to protecting with my research. I will be looking at the current known issues surrounding environmental health in the Bay Area and seeing what aspects of the pandemic may exacerbate or interact with those issues. What are the potential impacts of the COVID19 pandemic on potentially pre-existing environmental issues in the San Francisco Bay area?

This is the perfect time to work on this particular project, because it has real-time effects and consequences. There is no true end in sight for this pandemic without a cure or a vaccine. This could be our new reality for years to come. In the meantime, our response to this pandemic could be creating other consequences for existing environmental issues. Scientists have stressed the urgency of our window of opportunity to counteract current environmental and ecological issues. I am nervous that while our focus is on the very serious ramifications of the current health crisis that we are ignoring the new realities. Our focus is too short term.

We need to focus on how our constantly evolving new normal is affecting the world around us. Some of the measures that have been enacted were correct and necessary at the time, and with the information we had available. Many of those measures though are not sustainable. Increased trash production is going to be one of the main items I plan to research. Our landfills were already struggling to handle our pre-pandemic trash production. Many are already filled, and now closed. Another side effect of landfills is the gas buildup that is caused as products start to break down. California already has one of the largest gas accumulations from landfills in the country. Adding to that burden for the unforeseeable future does not seem sustainable.

Recently I saw a post on social media with suggestions from someone in a local government. They were encouraging people to check their local government’s websites for the contact information for local representatives or council members. Stating that they had seen as few as 10 individual emails demanding action on the same item derail an entire city council meeting. That would be my goal. I would share my research with as many interested people as I could find in my local community and encourage them to email our city and county officials until something is done about any issues that I find.

The stakeholders for this project would be the locals; the people who live in these areas, especially the areas along the coast or in the areas at high risk for forest fires and mud slides, would see the immediate and evolving day-to-day effects of any changes. Visitors to those areas would also be impacted by any changes. We are quickly approaching fire season. I have read that our local forest fire fighters have been devising new strategies to try to minimize the possible effects this year in the face of the pandemic. Mud slide season, which tends to coincide with and or follow fire season, and earthquakes are a little harder to tangibly prepare for. Hopefully if fire season is kept to minimal levels, mud slide season will be the same. Earthquakes on the other hand cannot be prevented in any way and could have unprecedented consequences in our time of crisis and social distancing. Any of the agencies faced with planning and combating any of these events would be potential stakeholders of this project.

I will likely be using a combination of news articles from reputable publications with sources, statements or reports from waste management companies, ecological and environmental reports and studies for the area. I will also research on local government sites and look up data from past pandemics to compare trends. I am hoping to find data on items like the amount of trash collected broken out in some sort of data set, research findings on environmental issues like plastic waste air pollution in this area, and hopefully some more recent air pollution readings since the start of the pandemic. Finding data sets on past pandemics to see if there were correlations I should be looking for now would be helpful. These are the most appropriate sources I think I will find given how new and constantly evolving our current situation is.

I am excited for this research project. I think I will be able to learn a lot from it, and it will help me to better connect with my current community.

Writing Project #2- Primary Research Project Final Draft

Interviews for research projects are effective for more than collecting hard data to analyze. I selected interviewing as my primary research tool because I consider it to be the most effective starting point for a research project. I was able to set up an impromptu interview with a recently retired environmentalist from my county to give me advice on this project. While she didn’t have any specific data to share with me, that interview was probably the best help I could have received in completing this course long research project. My interview gave me hope that one of my theories may be right. We discussed the benefits of reduced oil drilling and consumption affecting our greenhouse gas output outweighing the potential costs of altered consumer habits on waste creation. As a person with experience in this field she was able to give me an invaluable list of resources to help direct my research for this project. After speaking with her, my central research question remains unchanged; what are the potential impacts of the COVID19 pandemic on potentially pre-existing environmental issues in the San Francisco Bay area?

When I chose to use an interview as my method of primary research, I did not have someone of personal acquaintance in mind. I posted in my local politically active Facebook group and luckily was able to find Cris Tulloch who worked as an environmentalist. Her bachelor’s degree was in Environmental Studies and her professional focus was in wastewater management for our local county. She worked as an environmentalist for 30 years before retiring about 2 years ago. Because she is no longer actively working as an environmentalist, she did not have access to current data to share with me. That informed the type and scope of the questions I prepared for our conversation. I focused on her personal experiences in the pandemic as seen through the lens of her educational and professional experience. We also discussed the possible environmental repercussions of the pandemic as well as agencies and organizations that could provide me with secondary research sources for hard data.

The data I was able to collect was largely focused on the types of indicators I would be looking for in hard secondary data, and which agencies and groups would be able to provide that data. The organization she recommended I start with was the Environmental Services Department from the City of San Jose. Cris stated that with San Jose’s commitment to sharing it’s focus as a “green” city, they would be either tracking many of the indicators themselves, or they would be able to give me the information for the agencies or organizations who are (Tulloch).Visiting their website, I was able to start looking through their past environmental reports to give myself a starting place for the upcoming secondary research phase. While reading through their 2019 San José-Santa Clara Regional Wastewater Facility Annual Pollution Prevention report, I was able to find this table of pollution sources they are tracking. I believe it will be very useful in helping to focus my continuing research into currently existing environmental concerns in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Table of Identification of Pollutant Sources

One of the areas we discussed was the effect of the shelter in place orders on both personal and commercial utility usage. She stated she wouldn’t be surprised if there was increased water and power usage (Tulloch). Many commercial buildings will continue to use the same amount of utilities no matter the number of employees working on site to be able to keep the building functioning (Tulloch). Cris also said that with more people staying home due to local shelter orders personal utility usage would probably be up creating a larger strain on our resources (Tulloch). According to Cris a good indicator for water usage, since that was her area of expertise, would be to read the water tracker report from the Valley Water website, our local water district (Tulloch). She was able to provide me with contacts who would be able to provide me with hard data going forward at Valley Water as well as the agencies and organizations what would control electricity, refuse, recycling, and air pollution data sets.

We discussed my observations of changes in personal habits as well as the alterations I have noticed in those around me. Cris confirmed that she had noticed similar changes in her own personal behaviors, such as ordering takeout to support local businesses and increasing her consumption of single use plastics (Tulloch). That part of our interview reinforced my own observations about the increase in my personal home’s trash production since the beginning of the pandemic. It gave me independent confirmation that the original concern which prompted my research is a possible environmental stress point in a larger context. Her source suggestions for hard data that could be analyzed for this project will allow me to proceed with my research within the time constraints of this course, which is invaluable. It will prevent me from wasting time that is not available researching which agencies would be tracking the appropriate data and enabling me to draw conclusions in my final project.

The data collected is highly relevant to my central research question as it will allow me to continue this project going forward. The conversation highlighted the relevance of this project by confirming an early trend in changing consumer habits across households. My CRQ is focusing on the possible intersections of the pandemic with existing environmental concerns. This interview helped to solidify my possible theories about both the environmental benefits as well as the possible costs the pandemic could bring long term to our global environmental health. Her expertise also provided me the knowledge that I would be able to keep my research project local. I had been nervous that I would need to find state-level data or possibly even federal data and have to extrapolate from there. I was unaware of the volume of data that is collected at the city and county level on environmental issues. This information will make my course-long research project much more feasible.

Tulloch, Cris. Personal Interview. 31 July 2020.

Writing Project #3 Secondary Research Project Final

In order to support my course long research project based on my central research question, this week we focused on secondary research. My research question is still what are the potential impacts of the COVID19 pandemic on potentially pre-existing environmental issues in the San Francisco Bay area? Here are the annotations for my secondary research sources.

Indirect Effects of COVID-19 on the Environment by Manuel A.Zambrano-Monserrate, María AlejandraRuano, and LuisSanchez-Alcalde

Zambrano-Monserrate, Manuel A., et al. “Indirect Effects of COVID-19 on the Environment.” The Science of the Total Environment, vol. 728, Elsevier Science, Aug. 2020, doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.138813.

The authors of this source are all affiliated with universities. Two of the three have previously produced several papers on related topics. Published in the peer-reviewed journal Science of the Total Environment published by Elsevier; the article was published to the journal’s site on 20 April 2020.

The article is trying to show the indirect effects of the pandemic, both positive and negative, on the environment. The authors strive to show those effects while persuading the audience that the benefits will disappear once the distancing policies are revoked, but the damages will have already taken effect with potentially long-lasting consequences.

Employing both logos and pathos as rhetorical strategies for this article, the authors create an interesting juxtaposition. They provided facts and appealed to reason in the main body of their piece. I found that they also included commentary that was marked by a linguistic shift and appealed to a more emotional level of persuasion. Though these moments of commentary were sprinkled throughout the article, the structure of the piece predominately featured the more fact-based section immediately following the introduction with the more interpretive insights in the discussion section at the end. It seemed to be structured as such to first establish their credibility then follow with the purpose they were trying to impress upon their audience.

The source seems to be writing within the environmental discourse community with overlap in the pandemic response and planning community. Within the community, they seem to be contributing to the shift in conversation that happened in the months after the pandemic started to spread on a global level. This paper felt like an introduction. It was brief. It contained sources, but it didn’t seem to be referring to previous discussions on the specific topic of the pandemic. That said, it did seem to be taking the topic of the pandemic response and tying it back to on going discussion topics such as waste management and air quality. It felt a little like a person who has that one thing they are super passionate about, and anytime the conversation shifts, they try to somehow relate it back to that one thing.

The authors of this source make their positions known. They presented the information as is and were able to state why it would or would not have a lasting impact. The article was well written and structured in a way that was easy to follow. This article directly addresses the issues in my central research question. It discusses both the benefits and the negatives of the crisis on a global scale with examples that have easy parallels to my local community. While this paper isn’t focused specifically in my local community, I think it will still give great insight for my overall project.

COVID-19 Pandemic Persuaded Lockdown Effects on Environment over Stone Quarrying and Crushing Areas by Indrajit Mandal and Pal Swades

Mandal, Indrajit, and Swades Pal. “COVID-19 Pandemic Persuaded Lockdown Effects on Environment over Stone Quarrying and Crushing Areas.” The Science of the Total Environment, vol. 732, Elsevier Science, Aug. 2020, doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.139281.

The authors of this source are university affiliated with previously published papers on related topics. International peer-reviewed journal Science of the Total Environment published by Elsevier published the article to the journal’s site on 11 May 2020.

The article is trying to analyze the effects of the pandemic lockdown on the environmental impact of stone quarrying. This paper is highlighting the negative effects of stone quarrying on the environment and human health.

Logos as a rhetorical strategy is heavily employed in this paper. The authors included several tables, and figures, as well as detailing their formulas and calculations to demonstrate their argument. The piece focuses on hard factual data from the introduction on through to the discussion and conclusion. With the inclusion of breakdowns on their methodology there seems to a be a whiff of ethos-based persuasion, though they don’t explicitly rely on their expertise to persuade their readers. Their linguistic style seemed to rely mostly on professional, fact driven language. The authors were obviously non-native writers. While this didn’t distract from their point, it may have prevented some of the more nuanced linguistic strategies. The paper was methodically structured and took the reader through their research process without being unnecessarily detailed.

The source seems to be writing within the environmental discourse community with overlap in the environmental political policy community. Within the community, they seem to be providing data to broaden or invigorate part of an established conversation. It feels as though the pandemic situation merely allowed them the opportunity to research the effects of an established environmental issue they would not normally have been able to complete, rather than focusing on the intersections between the pandemic or response and the issue they are researching.

The authors of this source make effective use of their data. Some of the equations were a bit beyond my skill level as they were higher level calculus, but the graphs and charts were still easily understood. The piece was structurally well composed though there were areas where the grammar required more focus to understand. This paper explores global repercussions for stone quarrying and crushing. While preliminary research has shown me that stone is quarried in the San Francisco Bay Area, I have been unable to find a source in a cursory search that has shown me the current impact of quarries in this area. This piece does provide some excellent hard data, and details several impacts that could have parallels in the local community. I think I will keep it as a potential source for my final project to see if it has data that will be useful.

Writing Project #4 Persuasive Research Project Rough Draft

Introduction

With my husband suddenly working from home our utility bills have, of course, increased. That said his office remained open for the few employees who needed to use equipment they couldn’t take home to do their jobs. From press releases I have read from large tech companies in the area, and the number of commercial buildings I have driven by in the last several months with the lights still on, I’m sure many other businesses are the same. What sort of increased pressure are we putting on our local utility providers as we head into the hottest part of the summer?

California is known for regularly experiencing natural disasters such as forest fires. In fact, at the time of this writing, the Bay area is surrounded by the Lightning Complex fires. Fighting these fires requires an awesome amount of resources. Shelters have also been set up for those who are being required to evacuate. This is not a normal fire season though. Evacuees are being encouraged to seek space with friends and family first as shelter space is even more limited than usual. Those who are being told to evacuate also must weigh the potential risks involved with going to shelters in the midst of a pandemic. Social distancing and personal protective equipment would be necessary in any sort of interaction at the moment, but COVID 19 case numbers are still on the rise in Santa Clara county. The need for those measures in a situation where you would need to shelter with a large number of strangers would be even greater.

California was making strides to put a dent in the issue of plastic pollution before the pandemic hit as shown in the map below including California as having a “total or partial ban on manufacture, free distribution, and import” of single-use plastics. The increase in reliance on single-use plastics due to the pandemic is having indirect effects on the environment.

Map of Legal Limits on Single-Use Plastics — *Silva et al.*

Literature Review

Let’s talk about plastic. “Over 7 trillion microplastic pieces enter theNorth Pacific Ocean through San Francisco Bay every year (the 5Gyres, 2019), and an estimated annual contribution of 1.2–2.4 millionMt of plastic waste enter marine systems via rivers (Lebreton et al.,2017). (Silva et al.)”

These figures are from research and sources posted before the pandemic hit. Since the rise of the novel Coronavirus 2019 demand for plastic in the forms of packaging, plastic bags, and personal protective equipment have only increased. The suspension or delay of deterrents for single-use plastics removing a barrier to curbing the issue. “California suspended fees on single-use plastic bags and approved a pause in the redemption of beverage containers in stores for 2 months, starting on the 23th of April,(40) with the city of San Francisco banning the use of reusable items in stores, including reusable bags.(41) (Prata et al.)”

“However, the recent COVID-19 pandemic (a severe acute respiratory syndrome caused by a novel coronavirus – SARS-CoV-2) progressed rapidly (Worldmeter,2019); and the preventive measures implemented to control and mitigate its high transmissibility involved a sudden surge in demand for, and consumption of, plastic products by the general public, healthcare workers and service workers… SUPs represent more than 40% of the total production of plastics, with plastic bags and packaging as the most problematic types of waste as they are extremely difficult to recycle (~12% recycled) (CIEL, 2019). (Silva et al.)”

Discussion

We are currently using a larger amount of single-use plastics than ever before. While these steps were implemented out of caution for human health, these issues will have further consequences for our global society.

“The use of masks by ordinary citizens quickly became controversial due to the lack of correct handling and disposal, and the shortage of this material in healthcare facilities (World Health Organization,2020). Surgical masks should not be worn longer than a few hours (e.g., 3 h), and should be adequately discarded to avoid cross-contamination (i.e., in sealed plastic bags). Besides being a public health concern, incorrect disposal of PPE quickly spread in several public places and natural environments (Prata et al., 2020).(Silva et al.)”

The public is largely unaware of these potential issues in this area. It is not something that is being discussed by the media or encouraged by the local governments. Improper disposal of the ppe leave us open to the potential for further spread of the virus as it puts our waste management workers at greater risk as well as anyone responsible for cleaning up potential litter.

Conclusion

An interesting idea I came across in my research was the idea of reforestation as a possible mitigation to some of the environmental damage that is being indirectly caused by the pandemic response. While it will not solve the issues surrounding plastic pollution, it may help some of the other environmental issues as well as giving renewed habitats to the animals that these viruses are increasingly coming from.

“According to World Wildlife Fund, forests cover more than 30% of the Earth’s land surface. The unstoppable growths in human population lead to deforestation for resources, industries and land for agriculture or grazing. Rising average temperature and ocean levels, and increased rate of extreme weather events affect not only the global land and eco-system, but also human health (Ruscio et al., 2015). Deforestations are also linked to different types of disease due to the birds, bat-borneviral outbreaks (Afelt et al., 2018;Olivero et al., 2017). COVID-19 is bat related epidemic. To prevent this outbreak, billions of dollars are being spent to developing diagnostic, treatment, and medicine. But we are neglecting the primary tools of prevention such as forestation and respecting wildlife habitats. It is therefore very much important for the world to realize the significance of the forests, and to encourage afforestation as much as possible throughout the world. (Chakraborty et al.)”

References

Patrício Silva, Ana L., et al. “Rethinking and Optimising Plastic Waste Management Under COVID-19 Pandemic: Policy Solutions Based on Redesign and Reduction of Single-Use Plastics and Personal Protective Equipment.” The Science of the Total Environment, vol. 742, Elsevier Science, Nov. 2020, doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.140565.

Joana C. Prata, Ana L.P. Silva, Tony R. Walker, Armando C. Duarte, and Teresa Rocha-Santos
Environmental Science & Technology 2020 54 (13), 7760-7765
DOI: 10.1021/acs.est.0c02178

Chakraborty, Indranil, and Prasenjit Maity. “COVID-19 Outbreak: Migration, Effects on Society, Global Environment and Prevention.” The Science of the Total Environment, vol. 728, Elsevier Science, Aug. 2020, doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.138882.

Writing Project #4 Persuasive Research Project Final Draft

Introduction

I have spent the last 5 weeks researching the intersection between the novel Coronavirus 2019 pandemic and the existing environmental issues in the San Francisco Bay area. Since early March, I have noticed piles of trash overflowing dumpsters and lining the streets like in the photo above taken in Santa Clara, California on the 17th of August, 2020. These particular mounds sat for weeks waiting to be cleared away, only to be replaced by new piles one street over as soon as they were. Watching the amount of plastic that was accumulating in my own recycling bin at home, once the bulk bins were closed, was concerning. Thinking about the number of plastic bags suddenly being used in our local stores made me wonder about the environmental impact this pandemic was having in our local ecosystem.
With my husband suddenly working from home, our utility bills have predictably increased. That said, his office remained open for the few employees who needed to use equipment they couldn’t take home to do their jobs. From press releases I have read from large tech companies in the area, and the number of commercial buildings I have driven by in the last several months with the lights still on, I’m sure many other businesses are doing the same. What type, and how much increased pressure are we putting on our local utility providers as we head into the hottest part of the summer?

California is known for regularly experiencing natural disasters such as forest fires. In fact, at the time of this writing, the Bay area is surrounded by the Lightning Complex fires, which have been raging for days. Fighting these fires requires an awesome amount of resources. Shelters have also been set up for those who are being required to evacuate. This is not a normal fire season though. Evacuees are being encouraged to seek space with friends and family first as shelter space is even more limited than usual. Those who are being told to evacuate also must weigh the potential risks involved with going to shelters in the midst of a pandemic. Social distancing and personal protective equipment would be necessary in any sort of interaction at the moment, but COVID 19 case numbers are still on the rise in Santa Clara county. The need for those measures in a situation where you would need to shelter with a large number of strangers would be even greater.

California was making strides to reduce the issue of plastic pollution before the pandemic hit as shown in the map below from the academic paper “Rethinking and optimizing plastic waste management under COVID-19 pandemic: Policy solutions based on redesign and reduction of single-use plastics and personal protective equipment” published in The Science of the Total Environment journal which showed California as having a “total or partial ban on manufacture, free distribution, and import” of single-use plastics. The increase in reliance on single-use plastics due to the pandemic is having several indirect effects on the environment discussed in the next section.

Literature Review

Let’s talk about plastic. From the journal article “Rethinking and optimizing plastic waste management under COVID-19 pandemic: Policy solutions based on redesign and reduction of single-use plastics and personal protective equipment” published in The Science of the Total Environment, “Over 7 trillion microplastic pieces enter the North Pacific Ocean through San Francisco Bay every year (the 5Gyres, 2019), and an estimated annual contribution of 1.2–2.4 million Mt of plastic waste enter marine systems via rivers (Lebreton et al.,2017). (Silva et al.)” This is an issue that cannot be ignored. Plastic waste from around the world is washing up on foreign shores, affecting ecosystems and marine life, and damaging our environment.

Those figures are from research and sources posted before the pandemic hit. Since the rise of the novel Coronavirus 2019, demand for plastic in the forms of packaging, plastic bags, and personal protective equipment have only increased. Virgin plastic, or non-recycled plastic, is cheap to manufacture and damaging to the environment as it often uses crude oil to create. The suspension or delay of deterrents for single-use plastics is removing a barrier that was helping to curb the issue. In the paper “COVIV-19 Pandemic Repercussions on the Use and Management of Plastics” published in Environmental Science & Technology journal, “California suspended fees on single-use plastic bags and approved a pause in the redemption of beverage containers in stores for 2 months, starting on the 23th of April,(40) with the city of San Francisco banning the use of reusable items in stores, including reusable bags.(41) (Prata et al.)” California has since reinstated its pre-pandemic policies, but months of encouraging consumers to use single-use plastics will again take massive efforts to change consumer habits.

“However, the recent COVID-19 pandemic (a severe acute respiratory syndrome caused by a novel coronavirus – SARS-CoV-2) progressed rapidly (Worldmeter,2019); and the preventive measures implemented to control and mitigate its high transmissibility involved a sudden surge in demand for, and consumption of, plastic products by the general public, healthcare workers and service workers… SUPs represent more than 40% of the total production of plastics, with plastic bags and packaging as the most problematic types of waste as they are extremely difficult to recycle (~12% recycled) (CIEL, 2019). (Silva et al.)”

The quote above from the “Rethinking and optimizing plastic waste management…” (Silva, et al.) article is showing that not only is an alarmingly large percentage of the plastic produced used to make single-use items, but only 12% of these items will go on to be recycled. With the increased demand for single-use plastic items, those numbers will only grow. Plastic bags, while a large pain point in these current circumstances, are not the only types of single-use plastic that have increased. The public’s demand for delivery services, and therefore the packaging to make goods deliverable, have grown as well, and none of that begins to address the new demand that has emerged for surgical face masks and gloves by the general public. That demand was, of course, expected once it became clear that face masks and regular hand washing would help to curb the spread of the virus.

Discussion

“The use of masks by ordinary citizens quickly became controversial due to the lack of correct handling and disposal, and the shortage of this material in healthcare facilities (World Health Organization,2020). Surgical masks should not be worn longer than a few hours (e.g., 3 h), and should be adequately discarded to avoid cross-contamination (i.e., in sealed plastic bags). Besides being a public health concern, incorrect disposal of PPE quickly spread in several public places and natural environments (Prata et al., 2020).(Silva et al.)”

The issue above raised in the article “Rethinking and optimizing plastic waste management under COVID-19 pandemic: Policy solutions based on redesign and reduction of single-use plastics and personal protective equipment” published in the The Science of the Total Environment, is an important one that I have not seen addressed enough in this area. Environmental issues from the growing plastic pollution as well as the possibility of viral spread from improperly disposed of protective equipment is a growing concern. The public is largely unaware of these potential issues in this area. It is not something that is being discussed by the media or encouraged by the local governments. Improper disposal of the personal protective equipment leaves us open to the potential for further spread of the virus as it puts our waste management workers at greater risk as well as anyone responsible for cleaning up potential litter.

Conclusion

Given the risks associated with the increased plastic waste and improper disposal of ppe, I think it is prudent at this point to push for the public to place a higher importance on reusable ppe where possible and to globally urge the return to the previously instituted single-use plastic restrictions and deterrents. The research on effective masking is some of the newer research being done. What has been released thus far looks as though reusable cotton cloth masks with at least two layers are reasonably effective at stopping an infected person from spreading the virus, especially if the person they are interacting with is following the recommended social distancing guideline and is also wearing a mask. For the general public not regularly interacting in close confines with those who are infected, this seems like a reasonable action to stay safe while also helping to abate a growing crisis we will have to address in the future.

Personal safety is important, so I understand the desire to reach for medical grade protective measures in circumstances where so much is still unknown. That said, medical grade equipment is still in short supply in many areas. We should be leaving these items for our front line workers who are putting themselves in greater danger on a daily basis to help treat and care for the affected and vulnerable among us.

Our next steps could also include reaching out to local government officials about possible avenues to encourage business owners to give customers more bagging options, such as incentives for customers who bring their own reusable bags , purchase reusable bags in store, or offer bags made from recycled materials. Studies are still emerging about the life of the virus on various materials, but at this time it appears that the virus has the potential to live for days on the surface of plastic, where it seems to be only viable for a few hours on cloth fabric. This notion seems to support the idea that moving away from single use plastic items would be prudent for not only our environment, but also possibly for our personal safety.

An interesting idea I came across in my research was the idea of reforestation. I found it in the article “COVID-19 Outbreak: Migration, Effects on Society, Global Environment and Prevention” in The Science of the Total Environment, as a possible mitigation to some of the environmental damage that is being indirectly caused by the pandemic response. While it will not solve the issues surrounding plastic pollution, it may help some of the other environmental issues as well as giving renewed habitats to the animals that these viruses are increasingly coming from.

“According to World Wildlife Fund, forests cover more than 30% of the Earth’s land surface. The unstoppable growths in human population lead to deforestation for resources, industries and land for agriculture or grazing. Rising average temperature and ocean levels, and increased rate of extreme weather events affect not only the global land and eco-system, but also human health (Ruscio et al., 2015). Deforestations are also linked to different types of disease due to the birds, bat-borneviral outbreaks (Afelt et al., 2018;Olivero et al., 2017). COVID-19 is bat related epidemic. To prevent this outbreak, billions of dollars are being spent to developing diagnostic, treatment, and medicine. But we are neglecting the primary tools of prevention such as forestation and respecting wildlife habitats. It is therefore very much important for the world to realize the significance of the forests, and to encourage afforestation as much as possible throughout the world. (Chakraborty et al.)”

The concept of a global pandemic is unbelievably complex. The ways in which its effects can ripple out and the unintended consequences response could have is ever evolving theory. What we can focus on right now is the changes we have witnessed since the beginning of the pandemic shutdowns early this year. We can view these changes as they relate to pre-existing issues, and make theories from there. How long this pandemic will continue is still unknown at this time. What we do know, is that this pandemic is affecting the environment. It is also showing us how we have affected the environment, and some of the steps we can take to change that.

Works Cited

Prata, Joana C., Silva, Ana L.P., Walker, Tony R., Duarte, Armando C. , and Rocha-Santos, Teresa. “COVID-19 Pandemic Repercussions on the Use and Management of Plastics.” Environmental Science & Technology 2020 54 (13), 7760-7765
DOI: 10.1021/acs.est.0c02178